Tube flanging tool



Aug. 13, 1940. R. D. MCINTOSH 2,211,242

TUBE FLANGING TOOL Filed Feb. 28, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l @@HLH ug- 13, 1940- l R. D. MclNTosH 2,211,242

TUBE FLANGING TOOL Filed Feb. 28, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 `indented Aug. 13, 1940 TUBE FLANGING 'rooL Robert D. McIntosh, River Forest, Ill., assigner to The Imperial Brass Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application February 28,v 1938, Serial No. 193,045

Claims.

My invention relates to tools and particularly to hand operated tools for forming flares, flanges, or beads of various styles on ductile tubing.

v Amongthe objects of my invention is the pro- 5 vision of a new and improved tool for forming flanges on tubes of more uniformly precise dimensions than heretofore were possible.

Another object is the provision of a new and improved tool for forming flanges of precise dimensions on tubing wherein the maximum outside diameter of the flange will be held to an extremely small tolerance.

Still another object is the provision of a new and improved tool for forming successive flanges of exact dimension wherein the length of the flanged end of tubing from inside end of the flange to the free end is maintained uniformly precise.

A further object is the provision of a tube flaring tool for forming flares having exact dimensions wherein means is provided for expanding a tube positioned approximately in the device into a flare having a precise maximum outside diameter and length, and wherein the wall thickness of the flared portion is maintained substantially the same as the original wall thickness of the tube.

A further object is the provision of a tube ilanging tool adapted simultaneously to hold a tube and guide a saw in cutting the tube to la precise length so that when the ilanging member is forced into the tool, the ilanging operation will produce a flare of an exact predetermined length and diameter.

A still further object is the provision of a tube anging tool for raising on ductile tubes beadlike flanges of precise dimensions located at uniform distances inward vfrom the ends, there being provided a cut-off guide in the tool and the cut- 40 oil' operation guided automatically so that the tube will have the proper length, in order to produce a anged end of the desired dimension.

With these and other objects in view my invention consists'in the construction, arrange# ment and combination of the various parts of my device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective View of the preferred form of my device.

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of the clamping member in opened position.

Figure 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1 drawn toa larger scale.

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 4 4 of Figure 1 drawn to a larger scale.

Figure 5 is a flanged section of tubing.

Figure 6 is a modified form of the clamping member in opened position.

Figure 7 is a cross sectional view of the modied form showing the tool assembled prior to the flanging operation.

Figure 8 is a cross vsectional view similar to Figure 7 showing the tool after the ilanging op- 10 eration is completed.

Figure 9 is a section of tubing showing a modii'led -form of a flange.

While the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, it 15 is shown herein and will be described hereinafter in a preferred embodiment together with a modiilcation. However, it is not intended that the invention is to be limited thereby to the specic constructions disclosed, but it is intended to 20 cover all modifications and alternative constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as dened by the appended claims.

In the design of Hanging and flaring tools in the past, little regard was had for the exact di- 25 mensions of a flange, the precise size being left largely to the judgment of the mechanic making up the joint. As a result it has often happened that flanges either too larger or too small have been used and, as a result, improper joints 30 have frequently been made up which, in the course of time, have become loosened Aor have leaked.

Since commercial coupling members or fittings are all made by machines, the formation of a 35 flange upon the tubing to be used with them introduces the only element into a joint which is not uniformly machine-made at the factory, and by reason of the fact that it must be made by hand a lack of uniformity renders it, on the average, the weakest part of the joint. In order, therefore, to provide a manually operated tool which is capable of making flanges uniformly productive of a tight, leakless joint, such a tool must be constructed so as to hold the size of the flanges to a very small tolerance.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention chosen to describe the principles herein set forth, there is shown a clamping member indicated generally by the numeral l0 and a group of anvil members or anging heads, indicated generally by the numeral il. The clamping member is designed to receive and clamp tubes of several sizes in a-position such that they may be cut A of! to a proper length and a ange, flare or bead as the case may be, formed at the severed end.

'I'he clamping member is composed properly of a pair of bars or elements I3 and I4. In the bar I3 are elongated recesses I5, VI6 and I1 of different sizes in order to accomodate tubes of correspondingly different sizes and in the bar I4 are complementary recesses I5', I6 and I1' which cooperate with the recesses in the bar I3 when the clamping member is in closed position to form corresponding tubereceiving openings.

At the left ends of the openings, as viewed in Figures 2, 3 and 4, each tube receiving opening is widened into enlarged portions I8, I9 and 20 suitable for forming flanges or flares at the end of corresponding sections of tubing. The enlarged portion I9 is shown in greater detail in Figures 3 and 4 and comprises a frusta-conical section 2| and a cylindrical section 22 concentric with the axis of the conical section joining it at the base. The frusta-conical section determines the shape and angle of the are while the cylindrical section limits the maximum outside diameter of the widest portion of a iiare as will become more fully apparent from the description following.

The recessed bars I3 and I4 are held together by a pair of bolts 23 and 24 pivoted upon the ends of the bar I3 at the points 25 and 26 and retained in assembled position in suitable slots in the bar I4 by means of wing nuts 21 and 28.

Adjacent one face of the clamping member, on the left as viewed in Figures 2, 3 and 4 there is positioned a block 30, corresponding in length to the length of the bars I3 and I4 and having a thickness approximately equal to the combined thickness of the bars I3 and I4. This block 30 is secured to the bar I3 by means of screws 3l and 32 holding it rigidly thereto but spaced from the bar I3 by means of a relatively thin sheet of somewhat softer metal 33. It will be noted that this sheet of soft material is positioned only at the lower part of the bar I3 thereby causing a slit or groove 34 to be formed between face 35 of the block and adjacent face 36 of the upper bar I4. The purpose of this slit or groove is to provide a guide for a saw, indicated diagrammatically by the numeral 31 in Figure 1, the saw being for use in cutting off tubing to the proper length. Since, as is customary in the tool art, wearing parts of the tool are made of tool or other hard varieties of steel and it is therefore desirable to have a soft metal bottom for the saw groove in order that when a saw passes through a section of tube and comes to rest in the bottom of the groove, the teeth will not be dulled or damaged. By this arrangement, a relatively soft pad is supplied for the sharp and delicate saw teeth without sacricing in any way the rugged make up of the tool.

This tool is designed especially to form a flange or flare 28' in a length of ductile tubing 29, of a precise length and having an outside diameter which never exceeds a predetermined amount. Such flares are necessary in order to assure uniformly tight joints when used with the conventional type of coupling or tting. In order then to assure the formation of such a precise flare it is necessary that the exposed portion of tubing 29 which is to be expanded in order to form the ange or flare 28 should be of a precisely accurate length. While this could be done by pushing the end of a length of tubing end into the clamping member so that the end would be exactly flush with the face at which the flaring operationy takes place, it is not a practical procedure and the man on the job would seldom if ever take such care to have the flanges made uniform.

. Especially where a tool is to be operated in places-Where accurate positioning becomes inconvenient or when a flare is to be made in a hurry, it is not reasonable to expect a mechanic to exercise any more care than just enough to satisfy the job. Not only is it inconvenient but often it is impossible to take the necessary care to adjust every tube in a clamping member in just the same way. In order, therefore, to provide for a quick, ready and automatic positioning of a'flare in a clamping member, the applicant has designed a tool which provides a cut-off operation operative on an arbitrary length of tube to reduce it to exactly the right length. In order that this may be possible, the frusto-conical section 2I and cylindrical section 22 previously described together with an additional recess 40 are made to aggregate a depth equal to that shown by the dimension 4I and this dimension determines precisely the desired length of tubing which will be expanded into a flange or are. (See Figure 4.)

In operation therefore a length of tubing is clamped between the bars of the tube clamping member with the end protruding slightly toward the left as viewed in Figure 2. The bars are then secured tightly in place and the tube is sawed off by means of a saw 31 which will be guided to cut the tube to the precise length desired as shown by the dot and dash line in Figure 2. A1- though it may appear that the exposed length of tubing is slightly greater than the sloping length of the frusto-conical section it is to be borne in mind that when a tube of a;given diameter is flanged outward into a flare, whose outside diameter is almost double that of the tube, the ductile tube material comprising it will be considerably shortened and will then neatly occupy a shorter space such as that provided for it in the tool.

Block 30 completely overlies the tubevreceiving openings I5, I6 and I1 and has in it a series of apertures 45, 46 and 41 of uniform diameter, one concentric with each of the tube receiving openings. Cooperable with the clamping member I is the group of anvils Il comprising individual members or anging heads 48, 49 and 50 having uniform diameters and each provided with a iianging or flaring cone designed to t the particular tube with which it is to be used. For convenience the anvils are swiveled on a rod 52 so that any one of the group may be used as desired.

The anvil 49 has a aring cone 5I adapted to cooperate with the tube receiving opening I6 and the tube clamped therein. The flaring cone has substantially the same angle of flare as the frusto-conical section in the bars I3 and I4. In order to assure the precise formation of a flare, a shoulder such as 53 is formed at the working end of the anvil which abuts the bottom of the recessed portion 40 and limits the distance which the flaring cone can enter the corresponding frusta-conical section. Also at the working end of the anvil, the edge 54 is beveled over in order to guide the flaring cone into the recessed portion to properly finish the flaring operation.

The steps therefore in making a precise flare with this tool consists first of inserting a length of tubing in the clamping member' and securely fastening it in place by clamping the bars together with the screws and wing nuts, next sawing off a section of the tube so that the remaining portion has exactly the right length, and finally inserting a suitable anvil into its corresponding aperture in the block I and driving it home by means of a hammer or other suitable instrument so that the aring cone enters the free end of the tubing, ilares it outward to an amount exactly fiush with the cylindrical section 22 thereby limiting the maximum dimensions of the flare. When the anvil is driven in the shoulder 53 abuts against the adjacent portions of the clamping member and prevents the daring cone from thinning out the metal comprising the flare thereby retaining this automatically sized are or flange at a thickness corresponding to the original thickness of the wall of the tubing.

A modified type of flange or flare is shown in Figure 9 and is what is frequently termed a bead. The production of a flange or beaded end upon a tube of precise dimension incorporates the same principle of operation as that described for the frusto-conical flare but necessitates a structure slightly different in detail.

Figure 6 shows a clamping member comprising a pair of bars 60 and 6| in which is a series of tube receiving openings 62, 63 and 64 terminating at the left hand end respectively in enlarged portions 65, 66 and 61. The bars are designed to t one upon the other and are positioned exactly in alignment by means of the projections 68 and 69 in the bar 6| which extend into apertures 10 and 1| of the bar 60. The bars are held in place one upon the other by means of screws 12 insertable through the apertures 13 in the upper bar and secured in the tapped holes 14 in the lower bar.

Securely attached to the left face of the lower bar 6| is a block 15 secured thereto 'by means of screws 16. 'I'his block has suitable apertures 11, 18 and 19 positioned respectively opposite the tube receiving openings 62, 53 and 6i. The block is spaced from the clamping member by means of a soft metal sheet 8B which provides a saw guide 8| between the block and the clamping member. In this embodiment a tube 85 is shown positioned in the tool where it can be sawed to a proper length by means of a saw blade which may be inserted in the guiding groove 8|. An anvil 86 is provided which has a diameter slightly smaller than the aperture 16 and the enlarged portion 66 of the tube receiving opening. The anvil is provided with a central recess 81 of a diameter sized to snugly accommodate the exposed end of the tubing 85 receiving it to a depth slightly less than the length of tube exposed Within the enlarged portion 66. There is an annular enlarged portion 88 at the open end of the central recess having a diameter of a dimension Awhich will determine a desirable maximum outside diameter for a flange or bead 89 to be formed on the tubing. Similarly the exact length 9U of the flanged or beaded end of the tubing is determined precisely by the depth of the central recess 81 beneath a face 9| at the Working end of. the anvil 86. Recess 61 also forms a rounded end 9|.

In operation a length of tubing 85 is clamped between the bars 60 and 6l and sawed off by means of a saw blade inserted in the slot 8|. Then an anvil such as 66 which has a form similar to the anvil 41 described in the preferred embodiment is inserted in the aperture 18 and extends through into the enlarged portion 66 oi' the clamping member. During the operation, the cut end of the tube 85 enters the central recess 61 of the anvil and abuts against the bottom as shown in Figure 7. The anvil is then struck with a hammer or squeezed by some means to .drive the face 9| against the bottom of the enlarged portion 66 which thereby limits the drive of the anvil into the enlarged portion of the clamping member. During operation the cut end of the tube is compressed longitudinally and since the area of least resistance is at the outward wall, the bead 89 is forced outwardly of the tube into the space provided by the annular enlargement 88. Since the walls of the enlargement are positively xed, the outward maximum diameter of. the bead 89 is limited to a precise dimension, as is also the length indicated by the numeral 98. The tool is therefore operative to form any number of absolutely uniform anged or beaded ends for tubing of any size for which the tube is designed.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my device without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents, which may be reasonably included Within their scope.

I claim:

l. In a flaring tool adapted for use with a cutting blade and including a flaring anvil, a pair of complementarily recessed clamping bars for holding a length of tubing having a iiaring recess at one end, a block having an aperture corresponding to the recess for reception of the aring anvil bolted to one of said bars with the aperture in alignment with said recess, and a sheet of relatively soft material positioned between a portion of. the block and a portion of said one bar providing a gasket over a portion of the space therebetween to permit securely bolting the parts together leaving a slot between the block and the other bar at the portion not filled by the sheet adapted to receive the cutting blade for cuttingoff the tubing to a length suitable for making a are.

2. In a tool for4 cutting and anging tubing a clamping member including separable bars having complementary halves of a tube receiving opening formed therein, said opening having an enlarged portion at one end of the opening comprising portions of. iiange forming elements, a block rigidly attached to one of said bars having openings in axial alignment with the tube receiving openings, a sheet of soft metal positioned between a portion of the face of said block and a portion of the adjacent face of said one bar and separating the remaining portions of the faces of said block and said bar by a space equal to the thickness of said sheet thereby providing a guide for a blade-like instrument, said sheet being simultaneously adapted to form a soft stop for said blade-like instrument thereby minimiz ing damage to the edge thereof, and a ilaring anvil positionable by the openings in said block in tube hanging relation with said enlarged portion adapted to be pressed against the tube to form aflange.

3. In a tube cutting and beading tool, a clamping member including a pair of separable elements provided with complementary recesses forming a tube receiving opening, said opening having an enlarged portion at one end having a depth equal to the length of tube necessary to form a complete beaded end, a block attached to said member in partially separated relation to form a. slit providing a guide for a blade-like tool for cutting oi a length of tube exposed in the enlarged portion at a plane ush with the end of said portion, said block having an aperture in axial alignment with said enlarged portion, and an anvil adapted to fit slidably into said aperture and said enlarged portion, said anvil having a central recess for receiving the tube end for a portion of, its exposed length, Vsaid recess being formed with an annular enlargement at the open end to accommodate a raised bead and limit its outside diameter, and a shoulder in the bottom of said recess, adapted when the anvil is forced into said aperture and said enlarged portion of the clamping member to determine the length of the beaded end of the tube.

4. In a tool for cutting and ilanging tubing adapted for use with a cutting blade and including a tube flanging member. a pair of complementary recessed clamping bars for holding a length of tubing having an enlarged aperture at the end of said recess to receive said tube flanging member, a block having an aperture corresponding to the Vrecess for reception of the tube ilangng member bolted to one of. said bars with the aperture in alignment with said recess, and a sheet of relatively soft material positioned between a portion of the block and a portion of said one bar providing a gasket over a portion of the space therebetween to permit securely bolting the parts together leaving va. slot between the block and the other bar at the portion not iilled by the sheet adapted to receive a cutting blade for cutting off the tubing at a length suitable for working said tubing.

5. In a tool for cutting and fianging tubing, adapted for use with a cutting blade and including a tube hanging member, a pair of superimposed complementary recessed clamping bars,

for holding a length ci tubing, having an 'enlarged l0 aperture at the end of said recess to receive said tube flanging member, and a block-like extension having one end rigidly connected to the end ot the lower portion of the lower bar, below said enlarged aperture, the other portion of. said end of the block-like extension being disposed in close spaced apart relation to the end of the upper portion of said lower bar and the corresponding end of the upper bar to define a slot extending perpendicularly to the axis of the aperture and open at the top and sides for receiving and guiding a cutting blade for cutting the tubing to a desired length, said block extension having an aperture corresponding to and aligned with said aperture in the clamping bars for the reception and guidance of said tube anging member into cooperating relation with the clamping bars.

ROBERT D. MCINTOSH. 

